Falling with broken wings
by Lyeanthea
Summary: Castiel stays the night at Bobby's with the boys and during the night his wings cramp. He needs the boys' help to fix this small problem and is embarrassed to ask for it. Bad summary, I know. K for swearing. Not slash.


**Title:** Falling with broken wings  
**Characters: **Castiel, Sam, Dean and Bobby.  
**Rating: **K  
**Warning: **May contain spoilers  
**Disclaimer: **Do you really think that they would give them to me... I think not.  
**Summary:** Cas stays the night at Bobby's with the boys and during the night his wings cramp. Cas needs the boys' help to fix this small problem and is embarrassed to ask for it. Bad summary, I know.  
**A/N: **Set sometime in season 5 when Castiel is a bit more human than he is comfortable with. This is my first supernatural fic so I'm sorry if it's terrable (looks guilty). A big thank you to Zemira who betad this, she did an amazing job. All mistakes are my own.

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_Falling is when you need wings the most, saddly it's while falling that you lose them..._

Castiel... tired, limp and almost human. Was staying the night at Bobby's at the insistence of all three hunters. Lying on the couch without his customary trench coat or his suit jacket. He wakes during the night with excruciating cramps in his wings. He concentrates on the small amount of light cast by the moon shining through the window above him. Castiel remains that way for several minutes but the pain refuses to dull. So he rises to his feet and tentatively stretches his wings in an attempt to relieve the tension within them. But the movement only amplified the pain to the point where Castiel was unable to suppress a whimper. He decides to go outside so he could stretch his wings properly and to avoid waking the other inhabitants of the old house. Castiel turns towards the door but in doing so his left wing knocked a jar of lamb's blood to the floor. He watches, stunned, as it shatters, staining the dark floorboards with its content.

Sam woke from his dream with a start upon hearing a crash from downstairs. Snatching up his gun from beneath his pillow Sam made his way downstairs on high-alert. Leaving the spare bedroom he walks out into the corridor and almost shoots Dean when his older brother emerges from his own room. Bobby's being the only place the boys don't share a room. Wordlessly the boys agree to head downstairs together, Dean in the lead with Sam covering his back.

The boys didn't know what they expected to find, but what they found was certainly not expected. The brothers split up once downstairs, Sam walking into the kitchen and Dean into the study to check on Cas. "What the fuck?" shouted Dean as he entered the room. Sam, hearing his brother's exclamation rushed into the study, almost running into Dean. Both brothers stood in the doorway staring at the scene in front of them. Castiel was standing in the center of the room staring at the shattered remains of a glass jar stained with blood, the angels face showing a mix of guilt and pain. It was easier to decipher Castiel's emotions now that he was almost human, but his face still hid more than most. The only way to truly discern what Cas' was feeling was through his eyes and at the moment they reflected a feeling of being lost. I suppose this is understandable as Castiel is new to all this; sleep, hunger, nightmares, emotion, even sitting is strange to the 'angel', and it's giving him a feeling of uncertainty. He feels as if he is flailing in the dark, unable to understand all that he feels.

"Cas...you alright?" asks Sam tentatively. The angel raises his eyes to meet those of the two hunters but does not answer.  
"Cas, man we can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong." urges Dean.  
"It's my wings, they are painful, I can barely move them." Cas explains his voice a whisper, tainted with shame.  
"I think your wings are cramped Cas, not surprising really given that you haven't used them much recently and they've been tucked away almost all day. Could you make your wings visible for me?" Sam kept his voice soft, feeling like he had to for some reason. After a moment he saw Castiel's wings materialize in front of him. They were large and a dark gray colour, they looked unbelievably soft. The brothers were momentarily transfixed by the sight, Castiel standing in the center of the room surrounded by his wings, the faint moon light giving him a celestial glow.

"May I?" Asked Sam gesturing towards Castiel's wings. The angel gave a small nod and allowed Sam to approach him. Sam ran his fingers lightly over Castiel's wings and saw the angel shiver in response. After a second to build up his courage Sam placed his hand firmly on the angel's wing, fingers splayed and began to gently kneed out the tension. "Dean can you do his right wing." They both know it wasn't a question. Usually Dean hated being told to do stuff but he gives in without comment or retort due to the look of pain that remained upon Cas' face.

"What the hell?" Came a rough voice from the door way. Bobby had awoken and made his way into the study. "Cas' has got cramps in his wings and as he can't reach the bloody things we're helping out." explaines Dean.

"Well at least sit him down you idjit. You ain't going to be able to remove the tension with him standing straight as a ramrod." Bobby walks to the couch on which Cas had been sleeping on and cleared a spot for the angel to sit. "Come on" Bobby ordered gruffly, slight concern lacing his tone.

"Thank you" said Cas after he sat, his voice holding its usual gruffness but the pain leaking through it. Cas was knelt on the couch, facing the wall but unable to see out of the grimy window as it was too high.

It felt strange to have another being touch his wings, it had never happened before. He has been learning about a lot of new experiences recently. Like sleep, he found it extremely unpleasant. Feeling tired, falling asleep, dreaming of Hell as it had looked during those twenty eight years (time is different in Hell) he spent looking for Dean. Dean may be haunted at night by the thirty years he spent with Alastair but that doesn't compare to what Castiel has seen over the countless centuries. Then waking to find a little more of his grace has left him and that he is in fact more tired than he had been before he slept. An angel's wings have always been highly sensitive, _they are an angel's greatest weakness_. When an angel's wings are injured that angel is all but dead. Luckily not much can injure an angel's wings, time travel, Hell hounds, angels and occasionally demons. But now Castiel's connection with the host of heaven has been severed he is much more venerable.

"Judging from the look on your face when I walked in I'm gonna guess that this ain't normal" Said Bobby.  
"No" agreed Cas quietly.  
"Any clue to why it's happened now?" Questioned the hunter.  
"They're dying, as my grace diminishes so do they. There will come a time when they desert me entirely." Castiel's voice was the picture of sorrow. He had been banished from Heaven _his home_, and now he was losing all that he was. He could empathize with Bobby, he felt useless and crippled, just as the old hunter had when we was unable to stand.

A companionable silence settled over them and they remained that way for a time. Bobby in an armchair watching as the boys kneed the tension out of the angel's wings, Castiel facing the wall trying to ignore the dulling pain.

_As we fall we lose the ability to fly_

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Thank you for reading. I hope it wasn't to bad for a first attempt. Anyone with an idea for another short fic, just press that button below and let me know. I want to write something but I'm fresh out of ideas.

Lyeanthea


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